Review: NANA: The Movie

Released: Mar 3, 2006

Director: Kentaro Otani

On a train to Tokyo, Nana Komatsu (Aoi Miyazaki) sits next to NANA Osaki (Mika Nakashima), a budding vocalist of the rock band BLACK STONES. They part at Tokyo station, but cross paths again as they compete for the same apartment bearing the number 707, or nana sero nana in Japanese. Don’t even try emailing me that the number should be translated as shichi hyaku nana, you know that’s not why they wanted the apartment. I actually didn’t read the manga so I guess I can’t be sure. Whatever fuck you.

So when the two girls can’t come to a consensus as to who should have the apartment, they decide to move in together despite their differences. You see, one is a dreamy girl next door and the other is a punk rocker. Talk about odd-couple! Introspective NANA and outgoing nana become fast friends. The recently lovelorn nana wins a pair of tickets to see her favorite band TRAPNEST in concert and invites NANA along. NANA has reservations about seeing the band play live due to her unresolved feelings towards the lead guitarist Ren, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend and former BLACK STONES bassist.

The concert begins and Ren steps on stage as NANA sits below in the front row. Her eyes fill with tears as memories come flooding back, but will NANA and Ren be reunited?

The long-awaited movie confirms that some of the best stories don’t need multi million dollar budgets. There are plenty of memorable scenes in the movie including one in which NANA decides that nana’s nickname should be “Hachi” a popular Japanese dog name, because of the way the girl always runs around seeking love and approval. While the pure sense of joy in seeing faithful recreations of the apartment which first appeared in the NANA manga series, which most importantly includes the large picturesque window, the movie can’t help but be overshadowed by the musical scores.

If NANA is a budding vocalist, it’s only fair she gets to be represented by one of the strongest and most popular vocalists in J-pop Mika Nakashima. If rival band TRAPNEST is to be one of the biggest rock acts in Japan, it’s only sensible that their lead singer is represented by strong vocal newcomer Yuna Ito. The songs are superb, and unlike other movies that center around music, the songs are all original (Which I guess could be argued), and capture the movies essence brilliantly.

There are problems though, and as much as fans wouldn’t want to admit, the characterization is a bit weak. Although you love the two main characters, you can’t help but feel the love was inherent, you like them only because you were supposed to like them. Here we encounter the problem of attempting to spin a short movie around source materials that, in all fairness, might have worked better as a television series.

While the movie did its best job to invoke some crucial feelings into the audience, it comes off flat. When scenes of love-lost and love-returned occur, and I’m trying not to spoil the movie for you, you don’t care. The “love” shown in the movie seemed largely vacant, you don’t really care either way, and you never feel like any of the characters ever actually deserved each other or belonged together.

While the movie was enjoyable, the music was top-notch, and the acting passable, you’re left wishing the movie gave more bang for the buck. Flashback scenes with NANA and Ren seemed cold and distant in a way that the couple had only gotten together because it was convenient. If the movie would have attempted to flesh the characters out a bit more, the movie could have been perfect.